The Enterprise intercepts an attack on alien transport ship under attack, the transport ship is carrying a mediator on course for a planet rapt in civil war, the attack from a faction opposing an agreement to end the war.
The mediator, Alcar, is brought on board since the transport ship is no longer able to make the trip, though Alcar opposes using the Enterprise as his new transport -preferring an unarmed vessel- Starfleet has a vested interest in the end of the hostilities as the war is affecting local trade-routes and insist Alcar use the ship to finish his journey.
Alcar has brought aboard his very elderly mother who appears to be very senile and as a result very hostile, in particular towards Troi; whom Alcar has already seemed to form a bond with.
As the ship enters orbit around the planet Alcar's mother dies which seems to put him at emotional distress. Though it's offered, he declines delaying the talks any longer and agrees to continue them within in the following days, he asks Troi to assist him in a funeral rite for his mother, as they both have the ability of telepathy. Troi agrees.
During the ceremony Alcar speaks an enchantment and an unusual effect from a praying stone seems to have an immediate change to Troi's demeanor and personality.
She almost immediately grows very hostile, easily frustrated and becomes more sensual and randy, going so far as to pick-up an unnamed crewman in the turbolift and invite him into her bed.
Riker notices these changes and Troi's changed personality when visits her in her quarters and finds her post-coitus with her lucky subordinate. Troi eventually turns her charms to Riker who rebuffs them finding them out of character for her.
Soon she begins displaying more physical changes, appearing to age rapidly over the course of hours and her hostility grows culminating to her trying to attack Alcar, and female member of his species now aiding him before they transport to surface for the talks.
During this time, Crusher has been suspicious to Alcar's mother's death since she didn't seem to have any real physical condition that would have caused it, but she cannot be sure until she performs an autopsy. She finds similarities in what's happening in Troi's body as to what she observed having happened in Alcar's mother based on the physical exam and the transporter logs. Picard finds this as enough justification for her to perform the autopsy in spite of Alcar's wishes. The autopsy confirms elevated special brain activity, and reveals that the woman in the morgue isn't Alcar's mother and was only in her 30s despite having the appearance of a woman in her 90s.
Picard speaks with Alcar during a break in the talks and he is surprisingly upfront and open about what he has been doing. In order to aid his ability as a medator he's found a way to channel his negative and unwanted emotions and thoughts into another person, leaving him unencumbered. His "receptacles" his usually last many years but it seems the stress of this mediation or perhaps Troi being of a different species has caused her to age faster.
Alcar shows no remorse or regret over what he does, justifying it by saying doing this allows him to save more lives than the one lost by him channeling his emotions elsewhere. He also shows no intent of releasing Troi, and has Picard and Worf escorted away before he goes back into a shielded room where he cannot be transported away.
Crusher believes she can stop and reverse this effect when Alcar is in a vulnerable state during the transfer of his flow of emotions. To do this, Troi will have to die and Alcar will have to begin the process of channeling his emotions at which point the emotional waste can be removed from Troi and the effects reversed after she is revived.
Troi is put down via medication and Alcar alerted and brought back to the ship. He makes little apologies for what has happened and seems to have connected with the female member of his delegation and asks her to join him in his quarters.
While monitoring this situation and waiting for the right moment, Crusher revives Troi just before her death would take hold and at the same time rescue the woman in Alcar's quarters before he can establish the connection. The flood of negative emotions causes Alcar to rapidly age and die.
Troi apologizes for her behavior over the last few days as her and Riker share a hug in her quarters where Riker says he'll always love Deanna, even when they're both old and gray.
Another sort-of meh episode. An episode I'm not really sure has any particular message or anything it wants to say or address, just seems like an excuse to show-off make-up effects, for Sirtis to show a different range in her acting by being a bit out of character for Troi and I think to sort-of make a "if the ends justify the means"/"needs of the greater over the few" message. But sort of gets muddy here due to Alcar's unethical practices here, his victims not voluntarily agreeing to do this.
I will hand it to Alcar, though. He's pretty non-apologetic when he is caught and he makes no real excuses and justifies it by saying he saves countless lives by doing this.
The time-scale is odd here. In one scene Riker escorts Troi to her quarters following an encounter in Ten-Forward, before leaving her quarters Troi gets a chance to scratch Riker's cheek pretty severely before one of the commercial breaks. Following the break we see Troi out of her more recent sultry clothing and back in her Counselor's Bunny Suit and now showing a great deal of age to her. Possibly days have passed now, right?
No. It seems it's only been a few hours. In fact, it's the morning after he encounter with Riker. Who is just NOW getting the scratches healed by Crusher. He went back to his quarters and slept with those painful-looking scratches on him? Why not get them treated right away? Then seemingly a few hours after that Troi is of even more advanced age as Alcar beams to the surface. I know Alcar is surprised by all of this and the differences in his and Troi's biology is likely to blame but these differences took the aging time from years to a day or two?
Shallow moment? The Blu-Ray does wonders for the look of Troi as she answers her door in a very sheer pink nightgown during what appears to be a moment where the Enterprise's A/C seems to be on a very high setting. The William Ware Theiss Titillation Theory is in full swing here.
Another episode where Crusher is insistent to do an autopsy on a person who's family/customs won't allow it. While this time the autopsy does give her results that she needs to further the investigation, I still don't entirely get the need for it.
Before the autopsy she goes over the transporter log for Alcar's "mother", here she has a complete breakdown of the status of the woman's entire molecular structure! What more does she need?! And I find it odd an invasive autopsy is still a "thing" I would think scanners and other equipment could get her all the information she needs without making a single cut.
Okay episode. Sort of meh. Very average, one I can watch. Not one I love, not one I hate. It's just... there.
Next week, we're in for a treat.
), I like her in Face of the Enemy.
